When Quitting Comes With Hurdles

Workers at Concentra must pay up to four months' salary to leave early, part of a trend to restrict employee turnover

- Josh Eidelson and Zachary R. Mider

Last spring, a doctor for Concentra Inc., the leading US occupational health-care company, told his boss he wanted to quit. The workload of as many as 40 patients a day was too great, and the breaks were too short, he says. He'd gotten so used to inhaling his lunches in a couple minutes that he'd started racing through meals with his family, too. But Concentra wasn't ready to let him go.

It told the doctor that it would enforce a contract clause requiring employees to give 120 days' notice when quitting or pay a hefty fee, equivalent to his salary for the remainder of that four-month window.

Management said, "We will make you pay" and "The contract will be enforced," according to the doctor, who, like other former Concentra employees, requested anonymity because they fear retribution.

So he stuck around for another four months-during which he had to turn down a couple of job offers from companies that weren't willing to wait that long to hire him. "You definitely feel trapped," he says.

Former employees who worked in doctor, nurse practitioner and physician assistant roles all say Concentra subjected them to the four-month rule. They say the threat of heavy penalties kept them from resigning, even as the punishing workloads and lack of break time made them eager to leave.

Lynn Craig, senior director of marketing at Concentra, whose clients have included Amazon.com Inc., Walmart Inc. and the US Air Force, said the terms of the company's employment arrangements are confidential. "At Concentra, we are guided by our commitment to maintain a culture of respect and support for each other and our patients to meet our mission to improve the health of America's workforce," she said in an email.